Best articles blog

Augustus II successfully set out to discover the secret of “white gold,” as the porcelain that he produced at Dresden and Meissen was described. In 1701 he rescued the young alchemist Johann Friedrich B?ttger, who was fleeing from Fredrick the First’s expectation that he produce gold as he had boasted he could. King Augustus II imprisoned B?ttger and forced him to reveal the secret of manufacturing gold. B?ttger’s transition from alchemist to potter was orchestrated as an attempt to avoid the impossible demands of the king. Being an alchemist by profession rather than a potter gave B?ttger an advantage in the quest for the secret of porcelain. He realized that the current approaches which involved mixing fine white substances like crushed egg shells into clay was not the answer, but rather his approach was to attempt to bake the clay at higher temperatures than ever before created in a kiln in Europe. He intended to melt the structure of the clay so as to transmute it into a new substance. That approach yielded the breakthrough which had eluded
European potters for a century. Today the manufacture of fine porcelain continues at the Meissen porcelain Factory. Augustus II also gathered together in Dresden many of the best architects and painters from all over Europe, and his reign marked the beginning of Dresden’s development as a leading center of technology and art.
Frederick Augustus I,
Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (as Augustus II the Strong) (German: August II der Starke; Polish: August II Mocny) (b. Dresden, 12 May 1670 – d. Warsaw, 1 February 1733) was as Frederick Augustus I the Elector of Saxony 1694-1733, and later also King of Poland 1697-1704 and again 1709-1733.
Augustus’s great physical strength earned him the nicknames “the Strong”, “Saxon Hercules” and “iron hand”. He liked to show that he lived up to his name by breaking horse shoes with his bare hands. His ancestor
Cymburgis of Masovia was also noted for her strength.
Augustus the Strong owed allegiance to the Imperial Habsburgs as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
As Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He established the Saxon capital of Dresden as a major cultural centre, attracting artists and musicians from across Europe to his court. Augustus also amassed an impressive art collection and built fantastic baroque palaces at Dresden and at Warsaw.
As a politician, he is nowadays not held in high esteem in Poland, getting blamed for embroiling the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Great Northern War. His attempts at internal reforms and at bolstering the royal power are considered coming to naught, while his policies are said to have allowed the Russian Empire to strengthen its influence over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.